where are the members ???????

[pete12345]

... the one large manufacturer's forum banned any discussion of anything other than its own products.

I never understand that one. There are countless discussions on there with cryptic references to "The blue box company" as if to speak its name is blasphemy or something. I thought Hornby had dropped their silly "Buy everything from us, you don't need anyone else" isolationism years ago. Rather, they should be accepting that there are others out there who make things they don't, and where they do, they should be looking into making competitive products and also coexisting and maybe directing their attentions at something the "Blue Box Co" doesn't make. Instead they choose to ban all discussion on the subject.

[Bufferstop]

Pete12345 it's precisely because it is "a large manufacturers site". "Discussion of" usually involves the possibility of "Criticism of" and there's the unwritten rule that says "Don't slag off your competitors". If you have read them (of course you have) our rules include not slagging off manufacturers and suppliers, because we are sponsored by an on-line retailer, so whilst considered measured criticism of a product might be acceptable, a wholesale onslaught against any company would not be a clever move.

[PinkNosedPenguin]

Don't blame me I didn't write the code.

I'm not blaming anyone - I just would have appreciated the feature on this site . . .

[Roger (RJ)]

The Hornby forum does allow discussion of other manufacturers products and have done so for maybe 3 or 4 years now. The active promotion of other manufacturers products isn't allowed though if they are equivalent to Hornby's own products.

[luckymucklebackit]

Not sure if this is accurate or not, but I think there are more railwaymen over there, as a result the Prototype discussions are usually very good and insightful. Also the humour section can be really good fun. Those are the only parts of the forum I post in, as the layout section tends to be hogged by the usual suspects posting loads of useless chatter. If you post an update to your layout it will be off page 1 and out of sight within a couple of hours. I don't think lockdown has had the expected surge in modelling activity, possibly due to wives and partners being stuck at home and looking for company or entertainment.

Jim

[61xx]

See, now I want to like your post, but I can't

Well I'm not stopping you.

Rob

[Dad-1]

With limited time, yes, even during lock-down I have a choice of either posting on what I'm doing.
Or reading all the other posts and making rather bland comments.
I should read all the postings as a mod, but to be quite honest I try to make occasional comments
on certain regular posters work to show their postings are appreciated. I then watch the iffy posters,
not that I've banned anyone for ages.

That alone points to a slow down in postings, although the troublesome ones we can well do without.
Certainly things are not what they were back 2008, but many have built their layouts and really don't
have much to say now. One of my favourites Railwayjim falls into that category. Perhaps I'm moving that
way, simply running out of steam.

We were and still are New Railway Modellers, so 61xx don't be surprised if nobody is interested in P4
wheel sets. Even with my experience I've given up on EM, P4 no chance. What yo have done is remind
me that some forum maintenance is needed in the 'for sale' & 'wanted' sections.

Geoff T.

[Mountain]

I am still here. Even if it is in the early hours of the morning.

[Alexander Court]

Ireland

I try to post weekly clusters of updates of stuff from the previous month as I only have a slow netbook with issues and a phone that hates its cable to work with for photos/resizing and uploading. I usually have to move photos off the phone one evening, resize the next, upload the next and finally post the next. Just gotta work with what I have.

I usually read most posts but usually have little to say or enough to say but too little time to post.

I still wonder what happened to 'Norma'

Alexander

[luckymucklebackit]

That alone points to a slow down in postings, although the troublesome ones we can well do without.
Certainly things are not what they were back 2008, but many have built their layouts and really don't
have much to say now. One of my favourites Railwayjim falls into that category. Perhaps I'm moving that
way, simply running out of steam.

Geoff T.

Hi Geoff - Railway Jim and I are friends on Facebook and he has now become a collector rather than a modeler. And Boy what a collection!

Jim

[heda]

A bit off topic perhaps but when I joined the forum, eleven years ago, I was just starting my first layout, I found the information gathered from reading the threads and the inspiration from looking at layouts under construction invaluable. I didn't post anything for a long time, then when I did it was questions and every question I asked received an informative reply. There is no doubt that without the advice I got on here I would have packed modeling in years ago.
Now while I don't consider myself the best modeler by any means my skills have improved and I'm able to answer some questions myself. By posting updates of work on my layout I hope that it will give people new to the hobby some ideas and inspiration. So really I'm trying to put back into the forum what I took out of it.
From my experience I believe that threads under the baseboard and trackwork section are the ones that will bring more people into the hobby and hopefully they too will give there input.
Dave

[Dublo]

Hello all
I haven't been around for a few weeks. I had a flurry of activity on Little Weldon for the first few weeks of lockdown, but I kind of burnt myself out to such a degree I haven't even opened the door to the Railway room for weeks. With all the mental issues that lockdown has created I've been out of the house as much as I can hence a great looking allotment. As I work outside all year round I'm not used to being inside so long. But I have just bought some OO ladders and a new mould from Scalecast so hopefully this will be the re start I need.

[Michaelaface]

I did notice a big drop off in activity on here a few years ago, not sure why, I have a few people i made friends with on here on facebook and some I now know in real life, they're still building model railways but say they don't come here anymore, did something happen that I totally missed? or has the emergence of model railway facebook groups taken away some of the traffic from here?

rmweb certainly gets a lot of activity, but over there I feel like an outsider looking in at a clique, and my posts get largely ignored, here I'll get helpful replies and often spawn useful and interesting discussions

also, I should probably change this too, but I read a lot of posts on here, but rarely actually comment as I often feel I don't have anything worthwhile to add to a discussion other than the usual "well done, that looks great, etc"

[Lysander]

This issue is not isolated to this forum alone. I have noticed elsewhere - many times - a complete ignoring of serious modelling queries or updates on build blogs. On one forum (neither this nor RMWeb) I am convinced that it’s just down to cliques - you have to be part of the gang. I don’t know why it exists elsewhere though.

In the main, we post not for outpourings of praise but, rather, because we think that we have something interesting to show or wish to encourage others to pick up a scalpel and some glue: it’s to promote the constructive side of the hobby.

However, posting photos is a faff and takes time; text updates of builds may not be five minute jobs either. If members stop doing these things though, the hobby will become less diverse and more bland. We might just as well all buy boxes.

I have learned useful techniques from contributing to this and RMWeb. I suspect others have too, and there are some really skilled and prolific modellers in this place. If they stop posting, I’ll go too, and I suspect others might also. It’s up to the general membership to both contribute themselves and acknowledge others’ postings.

Tony

[flying scotsman123]

I confess I've been neglecting to post some of my modelling activities up on the internet. Mostly because I tend to flit from one thing to another, I keep saying to myself "I'll post that up when I can show a 'completed' picture" and that day never seems to come, no matter how close I come to finishing something. But in response to this thread arising I shall try to post some more stuff up, regardless of how incoherent "progress" appears to be, and to that end, here's a rescued Wills Terrier and some scratch-built coaches.